How it's screwing up your hormones

Paying $2 for a bottle of water may be more convenient than lugging around your reusable one, but that seemingly small price may have a big impact on your health. German researchers found nearly 25,000 chemicals in a single bottle of water, some of which act like potent pharmaceuticals in your body, according to a study just published in the journal PLoS One.

The study's authors purchased 18 different samples of commercially sold bottled water from France, Italy, and Germany. Using various methods of chemical analysis, they tested the water for its ability to interfere with the body's estrogen and androgen (testosterone and other male reproductive hormone) receptors. The researchers threw in a sample of tap water to act as a sort of ringer, and the results were stunning. The majority of bottled waters tested interfered with both kinds of hormone receptors to some degree; amounts as little as 0.1 ounces inhibited estrogenic activity by 60% and androgenic activity by 90%. The latter, the researchers wrote, is equivalent to the hormonal activity of the drug flutamide, a drug commonly prescribed to men suffering from prostate cancer. The tap water didn't exhibit any estrogenic or androgenic activity.

For the second part of the study, the scientists investigated which chemicals were causing the reproductive hormonal interferences. They used another form of chemical detection and discovered the water contained 24,520 different chemicals. The most hormonally active belonged to classes of chemicals called maleates and fumarates, which are used to manufacture the form of plastic resins used in water bottles. They can also appear as contaminants of other plastic chemicals.

The mere presence of these chemicals doesn't mean that bottled water is going to cause you major lifelong problems, but it is disturbing. Hormonally active chemicals, usually called endocrine disruptors, are known to interfere with the reproductive development of children, but more research is finding that they can also trigger heart disease, diabetes, and infertility, among other problems, in adults. It's concerning that they make it into bottled water, Bruce Blumberg, PhD, of the University of California–Irvine, told Britain's Royal Society of Chemicals. "It is a bit early to make any strong inferences about how detrimental these chemicals will be toward human health," he says, but adds, "It is certain that they are not beneficial."

Carry a refillable nontoxic glass or stainless steel bottle with you wherever you go, and you'll avoid all those problems—and save a fortune, to boot.